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Content Marketing

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11 min read –

March 2, 2016

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25 Tips That Will Help You Promote on Reddit

Igor Gorbenko

Digital Marketing Expert at Serpstat

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few years, you know what Reddit is. What you may not know, however, is how to use Reddit for your marketing campaign. As one of the most active internet communities with more than 200 million unique monthly users and almost 8 billion monthly pageviews, Reddit sure can boost your marketing campaign.

The Reddit community has its own set of written and unwritten rules. In this article, I will share some tips and maybe help you with promoting on Reddit.

Let's cover the basics first

Feel free to skip this part, if you already know how Reddit works

Common terms:

Subreddit (sub) – a niche forum with its own set of rules, guidelines and moderators. Almost all subreddits are open and allow posting and commenting even without subscribing.

Default subreddit – a set of the most popular subreddits that collectively make up the front page for people without a Reddit account. (r/funny, r/pics, r/videos, r/askreddit, etc.).

Upvote/downvote – this one is self-explanatory; it means approval and disapproval in Reddit's voting system.

Sidebar – a menu that contains information, different for every subreddit, including rules, guides, suggested links, FAQs, moderators' contacts, suggested subreddits and whatever else the mods feel like adding to it.

Front page – a homepage where trending posts are displayed. For all unregistered users, the front page is the same, and it showcases current top posts from default subreddits. Registered users see personalizedfront page, it's based on subreddits that users subscribe to. Having your post featured on the front pagemeans a guaranteed increase in traffic, to the point where many websites simply go down because of theheavy load.

Karma – Reddit's useless internet points and the desire of every redditor. You get karma when other users upvote your comments or submissions. There are two types of karma – link and comment. "Link karma"(often referred to as "submission karma") is gained by posting new threads, and "comment karma" is gained by, well, commenting.

AMA – an abbreviation for "ask me anything," a thread where a topic starter (usually referred to as an "OP," for "original poster") answers questions from the community.

Also, make sure to read these basic rules (reddiquette) to avoid getting in trouble. Pay extra attention to the "please don't" section.

Stop here, if you're skipping the previous part

I've been an active Reddit user for about five years now and have managed to learn a lot of tricks that many people will find helpful. Here they are in no particular order:

1.First of all, become a real Reddit user. You'll have access to a lot of content and active communities. Pick the ones you find interesting and engage.

2. InstallReddit Enhancement Suitefor your browser; it makes using Reddit so much easier and so much more enjoyable – from browsing images on page to switching between different accounts in twoclicks.

3.Set up several accounts. Creating accounts on Reddit is simple. All you need to do is pick a username and set a password (no verification required). I recommend setting up five accounts: one personal account, two accounts for marketing purposes and two backup accounts. It's better to have spare ones that are at least few months old, as trying to promote anything with a one-day-old account can backfire.

4. Don't use your personal account for marketing purposes. The most I do with mine is upvote some of my posts from my marketing accounts. Don't do that too often though (see tip #13).

5.Gain karma, or in other words, build a reputation. Don't try to promote anything with a new account that has zero karma. Start by commenting on submissions that you find interesting and it all will come naturally. Comment karma is a lot more important than link karma. Just make sure that your link karma is not negative.

Usually I start using accounts for marketing purposes when they reach 100 linkkarmaand1,000comment karma.

6.To build karma I usually comment on rising r/askreddit submissions. These threads are easy to comment on and often "explode": if redditors find your comment funny or relatable, you can get hundreds of upvotes per post.

7.Find subredditswith yourtarget audience. Reddit's internal search engine is rubbish, but it's capable of finding a subreddit that you're looking for. It's difficult to get noticed on big subreddits, so I mostly post on smaller subs. Sidebars of big subreddits usually list smaller ones related to the topic. For example, here's a list from r/marketing sidebar:

8.If your post gets heavily downvoted – delete it. No one will know, no one will remember and no onewill care. This is not the time for "any publicity is good publicity."

9.Run advertisements on Reddit. Reddit has a very efficient targeting system. Wonder how anyone can target anonymous users without any profile information? Here is some data on a random user gathered via SnoopSnoo:

11.Do an AMA, if you believe that someone is interested in what you've got to say. Use this guide if you need any help: 10 Tips for Hosting a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA). And don't pull a Woody Harrelson by trying too hard to promote your products and ignoring all other questions. Someone will ask you if you'd rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses. Be prepared.

12. Follow the rules. Each subreddit has its own set of rules. Some will ban you on your first offence. Some will shadowban you and you'll waste your time writing comments that no one but you will see. Always check the sidebar before posting anything on a new subreddit.

13.Systematicallyupvoting your own posts with different accounts will not work. Reddit will pick on such activity even if you use a VPN or whatever. If account X upvotes too many posts by account Y, both accounts may be banned (especially if both accounts are relatively new and low on karma). RedditEnhancement Suite allows to see how many times you've upvoted a certain account, so you can keep that number low.

14.Constantly check your target subreddits. I constantly see related posts in my subs, where I can promote without being obvious.

15.Don't add hyperlinks to your text. "Website.com" would be accepted, while "website.com" may cause suspicion. Adding a link at the end of the comment works too. That way it seems like you didn't plan to use links at all, but just threw it in for the convenience of other users, e.g., "Comment text. (link)" or "Comment text. I'll add a link later if I find one. Edit: link." That way it looks like I wrote a comment then came back and edited it to add a link.

16.Links from upvoted posts turn into dofollow links. The number of upvotes, that you need to turn links into dofollow, varies based on a variety of factors, like post age, upvote/downvote ratio, etc. Five upvotes are often enough.

17.Set up a tech supportsubreddit for your product. By that I mean, create a subreddit named after your product ("r/myproduct") where people can reach out to you, complain or simply discuss anything related to your product. Don't use a subreddit moderator account to promote. And don't expect people to be interested in your subreddit; keep it just in case, for when you brand grows.

18.Cite your sources, if you post a controversial comment or submit something questionable.There's a chance that someone will call you out for not providing a reliable source, and other users will think your comment is BS. It's up to you to prove that it's not.

22. Blatant advertising won't work, unless your product is really unique and interesting. In that case,feel free to share it anywhere. Threads like "I've made X that does Y" often draw an insane amount of traffic to your website.

23.Redditors will ridicule your every mistake. No one will be sorry for making fun of your new and unestablished startup, damaging your reputation or ruining your dream, nor should they. So make sure that whatever you post won't play against you.

24. Contrary to the previous point, redditors are also extremely helpful, andthey canhelp you solve almost any problem. Find a suitable subreddit and ask for help, whether you need to fix a car or bake a pie.

25. Most importantly, use the time you spend onReddit to your advantage. It's a constantly updated,unlimited source of very useful information on almost any subject.

Did I forget anything? Leave your tips in the comments and get credit on this awesome list!

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Comments

Ziv Shalev

Thanks for the great info. I'm ashamed to admit I'm a reddit noob, but this gives me a boost. downloading the enhancer and working on my Karma (also on the one in reddit ;) )

janice wald

Great advice. Is it worth the time invested though?

Igor Gorbenko

Thanks. It depends on how much time you have, because it is a long-con and not everyone can focus on that. I think it's worth it just for the fact that it's free. Results also heavily depend on your product, you can estimate reddit's interest in it by checking the number of subscribers to relevant subreddits.

Igor Gorbenko

Thank you and good luck :)

tim logie

that's great. I had it in the back of my mind that Reddit could be powerful but really didn't know where to start.

FanGrow.com

Great stuff , thanks for sharing your knowledge! Very useful tips.

stu wright - artist

i submitted a painting on reddit recently, funny how the votes go up/down, its at 14 right now, should I just post a few times a week on there? it seems a pretty strict service.....

Igor Gorbenko

Hi, Stu. You can post as much as you like. I assume that you post your own art, so you can spread your posts between subreddits. You can post the same painting in different subs related to art, I'm not familiar with the topic but you should find a lot of those. Subreddits for art in general, for paintings, for amateur painters, for paintings of horses, for oil paintings, for red paintings and so on. First, post your art to a small but relevant subreddit, like Oil Paintings Subreddit and then in every new subreddit make the same title + x-post tag: Here's My New Oil Painting (x-post r/oilpaintings). This way users will know that this has been posted in other subreddits and that you're not hiding it.

stu wright - artist

Hi thanks for the reply Igor, yes i`ve tried posting to paintings & art on reddit. on sunday i had 240 visitors from 1 post, impressive...I`m having a differant problem now though, its not showing thumbnail images of my last 2 post, bit odd, you can see here https://www.reddit.com/user... any idea on whats causing it? the images were showing at first, then oddly dissapeared...

Igor Gorbenko

I can see the thumbnails, everything seems to be fine. Probably something with your cookies.

stu wright - artist

yea sorry i deleted and added new ones, aparently its some prob with reddit, it doesnt always show thumbs

atif

A very informative post about use of reddit. I just read it. Many things are already in my practice but still my karma is not so good.

Jamie Stott

I appreciate the time you've invested in providing this information. I'm about to start promoting a new health and wellness program to the UK and have been informed that Reddit is a very popular platform for UK residents to seek product reviews. I've had zero experience using Reddit and am now on a steep learning curve to discover how to add value to the community and use Reddit to help promote our new offer.

Thanks for good advice. Knew some of them already, but creating a helpdesk subreddit was good :) also I liked the shameless plug, and reddit design crituiqe... It is really damn hard to promote content on reddit, so you get a steady flow of users to our site. But we are doing our best :)

Igor Gorbenko

The longer you work with Reddit the easier it gets. Good luck :)

abdullah

fabulous post my friend! Thanks again for great information. Some tips I know and some are not. I posted some articles of my new website in a niche related subreddit. It boosted my traffic heavily.

Igor

Glad it helped you. Cheers.

Sreejesh

Your post was pretty detailed with screenshots. I was doing one thing wrong, submitting from personal profile for marketing. Noted now

Igor

Glad it helped. Keep up the good work!

Lodmot

"Breaking any rule is grounds for an immediate ban."So you get no warnings, no chances to make up for your mistakes and you have to memorize every rule?Sounds like a very warm, welcoming place to visit. >.>;;

Elena

Yeah, without any warning. Thus be sure to read the rules and everything will be okay ;)

Lodmot

Well, I'll still check Reddit out and give it a legitimate chance, but that's not a great first impression. :P

Elena

1.3B people visit Reddit monthly, I think this fact alone is enough to include Reddit to your marketing campaign.

Lodmot

Right, but the way the article makes it sound, Reddit is extremely strict about their rules. And I've looked -- there's three sets of rules you need to abide by: the ones in the Reddiquette section, the regular Reddit rules, and there's another page of rules specifically for Self-Promotion. On top of that, you have to also pay attention to each subreddit's rules.

I've been a part of a number of social media platforms and forums (and I just opened my own forum recently), and all of them have rules and regulations you need to follow. That's fine. But I think there's a fine line between when you can be firm with your users and when it starts getting ridiculous. I don't want to have to go to Reddit and feel like I have to be on my toes all the time, worrying about whether or not I'm abiding by "Rule #36", or whether I'm going to get banned or not. That sort of thing just ruins the experience for me.

On the other hand though, I've asked a couple people at work if Reddit is strict with their rules, and they said it's not bad, just the usual stuff like on other websites. And like I said before, I still will check Reddit out and I've already set up an account, but I didn't get a good impression of it after reading the article.

Anyway, those are my two cents.

Home Security Eye

Thanks for sharing!

Joshua Jacob

Reddit promotion is the best idea.

Lakshmana Swamy

Superb information! Nice to have it on board!

Rasel Mahmud

I amalgamated to your admittance for getting mood articles concerning the online will. I’ll have to attempt it because I’ve been using the elite and elite benefit and spending a little fortune to profit air articles for my sites. Thanks! www.quickwill.co

Jane Foster - Guest Blogger

Hi, I have used Reddit many times, but my Karma score is not increasing. I tried a lot but still my score is 1. Do you have some idea, how to increase that?

Elena

Do your submissions get upvotes? The more upvotes you get, the higher your Karma is.

FreeUpVotes

Obviously, one of my friend promoted his ICO on Reddit and made 1 MILLION in less than 1 Week, He Buy Crpto related Niche Reddit Accounts from http://freeupvotes.com/redd...I am also going to try it.

TheRealManPop

To be honest I didn't think that reddit was a good choice for my mens style blog. On the first day of using it, my website traffic spiked to the highest it's ever been since the 3 months i've been blogging. Never knew the power of reddit.

John

Thanks sooooo much for this! I've got a new site that I've been trying to get up and going with our conetent. I've already been banned from one of the subreddits that I love the most for posting more than 10% self promoted conent.... (3 posts in 2 weeks) I did this on my 5 year old, account, and am now crying the digital blues.

You have given me some food for thought on how to legitimately advertise on Reddit without incurring the wrath of mods.

culexy neel

Yes obviously your post provides right information ,but actually what is going there i dont know,my posts after uploading not getting visible on page and the moderators also not giving any replies of my queries...

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